Ironic-er and Ironic-er...or Something Like That

A transgender man, Thomas Beattie, who made headlines after announcing he was pregnant, has given birth to a baby girl at a hospital in Oregon,the U.S. the People magazine reported.

Thomas Beattie, 34, who was born a woman, legally changed his gender undergoing hormone treatment and realignment surgery 10 years ago. But although he had his breasts removed he retained his female reproductive organs.

Beattie, who lives with his 45-year-old wife, Nancy, was cited in the People as saying, "The only thing different about me is that I can't breastfeed my baby. But a lot of mothers don't."

Beattie's announcement of his pregnancy caused a sensation on the Oprah Winfrey Show in April. He said the decision was made to get pregnant as his wife was unable to give birth following a hysterectomy. (read this article online HERE)

So Tracy Lagondino became Thomas Beattie. She apparently felt like she was really, truly a male deep down inside. She took lots of male hormones to counteract her naturally occurring female hormones and had her girl bits cut off and the remaining stuff fashioned to resemble boy bits...but she retained the girl parts inside.

Somewhere along the line, Thomas met Nancy and they got married (because it's legal and all). Now Nancy, who has always been and still remains Nancy, had her inside girl stuff removed for health reasons a long time ago, still had her outside girl stuff.

Thomas and Nancy wanted to have a family. But since Nancy was unable to become pregnant - even if she was married to an actual man with real man parts inside and out - Thomas generously decided to lend her his uterus. (It's not like he was using it, after all.) A baby was conceived via intrauterine insemination (IUI), with an anonymous male donor providing the manly ingredients for the couple. Their daughter was born on June 29, 2008 - via natural childbirth even, since Thomas apparently also retained the important parts that connect the inside girl parts to the outside girl parts.

"Despite years of taking hormones and living outwardly as a man, Beattie maintained that he retained his female sex organs because he intended one day to get pregnant." (ABC News)

Uh...

So now Nancy has been taking lots of female hormones, since she doesn't have the female parts to produce them naturally, so that she can induce lactation to breastfeed the baby that her husband bore with another man's ingredients.

Now that's teamwork!

...but somehow I just don't think this is quite what God had in mind...

Sandra Ostapowich is recuperating from the amazing job she did as conference coordinator for Amen. Running on adrenaline and Diet Coke for the month of July, Madre continues to provide priceless contributions to Higher Things and its youth. She currently serves on the Higher Things Board of Director as Secretary.